Miesha Tate, Marloes Coenen and Zoila Frausto

The Bellator 115-pound women’s champ Zoila “The Warrior Princess” Frausto will be fighting at the Bellator Fighting Championships 35 on March 5th in Lemoore, California, but it wont be for the belt.
Zolia will be taking on Karina Hallinan in a non title bout there.
Zolia is 10-1-0 and her opponent Karina is 3-4-0.
Interestingly enough, the two faced each other once before, when they both made their MMA debuts.
It was at Wargods/Ken Shamrock Productions - The Valentine's Eve Massacre on February 13th, 2009 at the Selland Arena in Fresno, California.
Zolia won by a controversial split decision.
What is it with Zolia and "controversial" decisions?
I have read that her fight with Karina had a questionable outcome and so did her fights with Jessica Aguilar and Megumi Fujii.
So really what is going on with her?
Three of her ten wins are questionable?
Are officials handing out victories to her?
Do MMA fans have something against her?

In other news, Amanda “Lioness of the Ring” Nunes made her Strikeforce debut at Strikeforce - Challengers 13 on January 7th, 2011 at the Nashville Municipal Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee and KOed Julia Budd in fourteen seconds of the first round.
Pretty impressive debut huh?
This moves Amanda to 6-1-0 and drops Julia to 1-1-0.
This also gives Amanda an undefeated streak since her loss to Ana Maria (3-4-0) in her debut back on March 8th, 2008 at Prime - MMA Championship 2 in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil.
Does Amanda have Strikeforce champ Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos in her sights?
I would imagine so.

And finally, a match a lot of MMA fans are looking forward to will happen on March 5th at Strikeforce: Columbus (the same night as Bellator Fighting Championships 35...hmmmm).
Marloes “Rumina” Coenen will be talking on Miesha “Takedown” Tate.
Marloes is 18-4-0 and her last fight was a win over Sarah Kaufman via submission at Strikeforce - Diaz vs. Noons 2 on October 9th, 2010 at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California.
Miesha's last fight was a win over Hitomi Akano by decision at Strikeforce - Challengers 10 on August 13th, 2010 at the Dodge Theatre in Phoenix, Arizona, United States.
The match will be for the Strikeforce 135-pound title.

Female MMA - Megumi Fujii

You know I find it very hard to believe that I have done write ups on female MMA stars like Erin Toughill, Gina Carano and Cristiane Santos on this blog, but I have never done a write up on Japanese female mixed martial artist Megumi Fujii.

Megumi (Mega Megu) was born on April 26, 1974 in Okayama Prefecture, Japan.
As far as female MMA rankings go, MMARising.com has Megumi ranked number one on their Top 15 Women’s Pound-For-Pound Rankings, and the WAMMA has Megumi ranked number one in the Flyweight division.

Why?

Well it may have something to do with the fact that she is currently 19-0-0.
Yes, nineteen wins, no losses and no draws.
That's 16 submissions, and 3 decisions.
Of course with the exception of Lisa Ward, not many of her opponents are well known outside of Japan.
Megumi's fastest MMA fight was a submission over Dah Le Chon.
She took her out in 19 seconds in the first round with a RNC.
19 seconds?
Dah must have wondered why she even bothered to get out of bed that morning.....

Thirteen of Megumi's 16 fights have been won in the first round.

Megumi has a black belt in Judo and Jujutsu, and also fights in Sambo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu tournaments.

Megumi got her mixed martial arts training from Shooto veteran Hiroyuki Abe and MMA fighter and professional wrestler Josh Barnett.
She has also trained several MMA fighters including Hitomi Akano (15-6-0).

If you want to find out more about Megumi, you can visit her website here:
http://www.megumifujii.com/

Or at her MySpace page:
http://www.myspace.com/aaccmegu

Female MMA - The State of the Art

In the aftermath of the Gina Carano-Cris Santos fight, I was looking around for inspiration for today's entry.
Here is a sample of the headlines I ran across.....

Do women belong fighting in mixed martial arts?
Baltimore Sun

Does women's MMA have a future?
Baltimore Sun
(Do I sense a pattern with the Baltimore Sun here?)

Carano's loss to 'Cyborg' hurts women's MMA
FOXSports.com

Strikeforce postmortem: Is Santos' win good for women's MMA?
ESPN

Though growing, women's MMA not equal to men's
Florida Today

Female MMA is far from accepted yet.
I keep hearing terms like "not as good as the guys", "lack of depth", "women shouldn't be fighting each other".
And of course "she's ugly, she looks like a man, I don't like her."

Wow.
I thought we had outgrown that kind of thinking.
No Cris Santos is not gonna get in the cage with Brock Lesnar.
Just like Laila Ali has no business in the ring with Mike Tyson.
But that doesn't mean Santos isn't great in her division.
Maybe the WWE and their Diva division has poisoned the minds of sports fans to where they think that a woman cannot be just as good as a man.
(perhaps Lisa Marie Varon will change that idea)

These ladies work just as hard as their male counterparts and should be treated with the same respect.
I'm not saying we should praise sloppy execution in either division.
The women should be (and from what I have seen are) held to the same standards.
But no matter how good some female MMA stars are, they will be judged less than the guys and thats just not right.

Gina Carano vs. Cristiane Cyborg Santos Result

http://mmafrenzy.com/

In the Strikeforce Female 145-Pound Championship, Gina Carano vs. Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos

Cyborg wins at the end...and I mean very end.. of the first round.
It was like 4:58 of a 5 minute round.

Well I said Cris would win......
You could see where the power was too.

Gina Carano Versus Cristiane Cyborg Santos Is Set

As most of you probably already know, the No. 1 and the No. 2 females fighting in the world, Gina Carano and Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos will finally face each other Aug. 15.
This has been brewing since EliteXC went under a little over a year ago.
The fight will be for the Strikeforce 145 lb Women's Championship.
Gina should have little problem making the 145 pound allowance, but Cristiane has had trouble making it before.
The bout will be five rounds, and unless something changes between now and then, they will be three minute rounds.
I'd like to see five minute rounds, but we'll see.
The bout will air live on Showtime on Saturday, August 15th, at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, CA.

My prediction right now (this is subject to change) is a win by Gina by decision.
I'm not seeing any kind of blow out here.
I think it will go the distance and whoever wins, it wont be by a huge margin.
I also think that how this bout goes will have a major impact on female MMA bouts in the future.

Female MMA, Sarah Kaufman, Miesha Tate and Shayna Baszler

Sarah Kaufman raised her undefeated record to 9-0 at ShoMMA with a unanimous decision over Miesha Tate (6-2) in a 135-pound fight.
Both women put on a good fight and were determined to win.
I wonder if Tate had more time to get ready for Kaufman, would the outcome have been any different?
Sarah as you know was a "last minute" substitute for Kim Couture.
But Sarah didn't have any extra prep time either as she just jumped into this fight.

The next fight though will be a different story, as Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker has already announced that the winner of this fight (Kaufman) will face Shayna Baszler on June 19th.
"The Queen of Spades" Baszler who is 9-5-0 and Kaufman will both have plenty of time to get ready for each other.

Now I wonder if we can get Strikeforce to extend the rounds to three minutes instead of five?

Female MMA News: Tara LaRosa, Kim Couture and Miesha Tate

Here's an article about female mma fighter Tara LaRosa from fanhouse.com...

Tara LaRosa may be the best mixed martial artist -- male or female -- that you've never heard of.
While Gina Carano and Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos have received all the attention from MMA fans and media, the consensus pound-for-pound best female fighter in the world has seemingly been pushed aside. What a shame.
http://mma.fanhouse.com/2009/04/30/the-curious-case-of-tara-larosa/

In other news, Bellator has held their first female mma match.
It was between Jessica Pene and Tammy Schneider, with Jessica coming out victorious.
And in a similar vein, WEC is now planning a women's division.

And bad news, as word comes that Xtreme Couture Vice President Kim Couture has pulled out her scheduled May 15 "SHO MMA: Strikeforce Challenger Series" fight with Miesha Tate.
Strikeforce officials didn't give a reason for Couture's decision, but the organization is looking for a replacement in hopes of keeping Tate on the card.

UPDATES:

It looks like undefeated Sarah Kaufman will replace Kim.

And this may give insight as to why Kim pulled out of the match:

Randy Couture served his wife Kim Couture with divorce papers on Tuesday according to a Raw Vegas report.
It was widely reported that Kim pulled out of her fight with Meisha Tate at SHO MMA: Strikeforce Challenger Series on May 15th due to martial problems. According to the report the divorce papers came as a shock to Kim.
http://www.aroundtheoctagon.com/?p=1755

Reid vs Waterson and Santos vs Akano Results

Elena “Baby Doll” Reid (3-0) beat Michelle "The Karate Hottie" Waterson (7-3) at Saturday's Extreme Beatdown event.
Elena won with a TKO 1:50 into the second round.

And Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos (6-1) defeated Hitomi Akano (14-5) in the third round.

If you missed it, you can see the fight here:

Elena Reid versus Michelle Waterson

Michelle Waterson

Elena Reid

I had mentioned earlier that Michelle “The Karate Hottie” Waterson will be facing MMA and boxing star Elena “Baby Doll” Reid at “Extreme Beatdown” at Apache Gold Casino on April 11th.
I haven't had an entry on Elena here, although I did do one on my female boxing blog back in 2007.

Elena Reid was born November 1, 1981 in Phoenix, Arizona.
And although Elena has found success in boxing, she started out in karate and kickboxing, winning an Arizona State Kickboxing Title at the age of 17.

Elena made her MMA debut on December 28, 2007 with a win over Tammie Schneider by TKO in the second round.
She has a 2-0-0 record in MMA, and a 19-5-6 in boxing.

Elena is more of a striker and Michelle is more of a ground fighter, so this match up should be interesting.

More Hitomi Akano versus Cris Cyborg News

I mentioned the Hitomi Akano versus Cristiane "Cris Cyborg" Santos match on April 11 in a previous post.
But now I hear that Josh Barnett will be in Akano's corner.
This would make sense since Akano is one of Josh's students.
Should an upset happen....what would happen to the anticipated Gina Carano / Santos fight?

The Akano / Santos fight will air on Showtime as part of their Strikeforce premier.
You can find out more about ths Showtime event here:
http://strikeforce.sho.com/

MMA Updates, Gina Carano, Kim Couture and More

It looks like the Gina Carano / Cristian "Cyborg" Santos fight could happen in August at the Strikeforce show.
If it happens, the fight will most likely air on Showtime or CBS.

Kim Couture will be on the May 15 "ShoMMA: Strikeforce Challengers," acrd facing an undetermined as of yet opponent.

Kyra Gracie won the Absolute and Lightweight divisions last year at the 2008 Womens Brown/Black Belt World Champions.
She is said to be competing at the April 18th New York International Open Jiu-Jitsu Championship in New York, but I haven't seen confirmation of this yet.

At the April 11 in “Extreme Beatdown” at Apache Gold Casino, Michelle “The Karate Hottie” Waterson will be facing MMA and boxing star Elena “Baby Doll” Reid in a special female 112-pound catch-weight attraction bout..

I don't know if I mentioned it before or not, but Erin Toughill has a website at http://www.erintoughill.com/

And Tara LaRosa won her MMA fight with Sally Krumdiak at Atlantic City's Trump Marina with a third round submission.
Tara's next fight is tentatively scheduled for May 30 in Atlantic City or June 14 in Birmingham, Alabama.

Ginele Marquez - Female MMA Fighters

Ginele Marquez trains at Paulson's CSW (Combat Submission Wrestling) under Erik Paulson and Josh Barnett.
She stands 5'3 and weighs around 135 pounds.
Her first pro match was a loss to Christine Van Fleet via Submission (Triangle Choke) at Pacific Pankration Kickboxing Association (PPKA) - Muckelshoot on August 15th, 2001 in Auburn, Washington.
Ginele's last match was a win over Atsuko Emoto via Unanimous Decision at Smackgirl - World ReMix 2008 Second Round on April 25th, 2008 at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan.
Her current record is 7-7-1.

You can check her out on Facebook here:
http://www.facebook.com/ginele.marquez
Or follow her at Twitter here:
http://twitter.com/ginelemarquez

MMA News: Cristiane Santos versus Hitomi Akano

Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos (6-1) of Brazil will be facing “Smack Girl” Champion Hitomi “Girlfight Monster” Akano (14-5) of Japan at the "Strikeforce: Shamrock vs. Diaz " event on April 11th at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California.

I think this will be a very interesting match up, because the two women are almost polar opposites.
On the one hand you have Santos' Muay Thai striking and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu skills, and on the other hand you have Akano's submission skills.
Cristiane is of course the co-holder (along with Gina Carano) of the number one ranking in the WAMMA.
So what would a loss to Akano do to that standing?
And what would that do for Akano?

Hitomi was the very first lady I profiled on this blog back in February of 2007.
She has won 11 of her 14 fights with a submission. 10 of them were armbars and 5 were in the first round.
She beat fellow female MMA fighter Hari Hari in 38 seconds in the first round with an armbar.

Cristiane has won 4 of her fights in the first round, and 2 of those were by corner stoppage, her opponents corner men threw in the towel after the first round.
But the only loss she has had was via a leg lock submission, and submissions are Hitomi's bread and butter.
All of Hitomi's losses were by decision.

Cristiane has the height, weight and age advantage, but in MMA, sometimes that doesn't mean a lot.

Gina Carano and Strikeforce

I know not being sure of your future is no fun, but Gina Carano should at least feel flattered.
It must feel like a senior prom to her with so many people wanting to take her out.
UFC President Dana White wants her for the WEC, Affliction's Vice President Tom Atencio want her (mainly for the Carano/Santos dream match) and now, Gina's orginal promotion Strikeforce wants her as well. Too bad all the EliteXC fighter's contracts are right now in limbo.

Anyway, MMAjunkie has a big write up about all this and you can see everything in depth here:
http://mmajunkie.com/news/13321/strikeforce-also-interested-in-female-star-gina-carano.mma

Gina “Conviction” Carano versus Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos

All is not lost!
LOL
MMA Mania has run an excerpt from an interview in Fighters Only magazine that says Gina Carano still wants to make the Carano / Santos fight happen.
Of course this will take some maneuvering but it is still a possibility.
Gina has the pull, now it they can get an organization to fall into line.

Here's a snip from the article:
Gina Carano vs Cris Cyborg fight still possible
Former Elite XC female superstar Gina “Conviction” Carano (7-0) still has plans to face off against Brazilian rival Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos (6-1) even with the collapse of Elite XC, according to a recent interview with Fighters Only magazine.

And here's a link to the whole article:
http://mmamania.com/2008/11/09/package-deal-gina-carano-vs-cris-cyborg-fight-still-possible/

Kim Couture versus Lina Kvokov set for November 21st

Kim Couture will face Lina Kvokov at “Strikeforce: Destruction” on November 21st.
Both women are 0-1-0, but everybody has to start winning somehere don't they?
Kim is (as WWE's Jim Ross would say) "double tough".
The wife of UFC heavyweight champion Randy Couture broke her jaw in her first fight earlier this year just seconds into the first round.
But she showed true fighting spirit by staying in there all three rounds.
Even though her opponent Kim Rose won the fight by unanimous decision, Kim scored a personal victory.
Both women on paper are evenly matched.
But showing the kind of guts Kim did back in June, I do not envy Lina Kvokov.

Speaking of Lina, she is involved in a very worthwhile organization, "Female Fighters Against Domestic Violence".
You can check out their website here: http://www.ffadv.org/

Elite XC damages Female MMA?

I had to post this because I love Command and Conquer and Gina Carano.

Here's an excellent article by David Mayeda over at FightTicker.com lamenting the loss of EliteXC and what it will do to the female mma fight scene.....

What Pro Elite did that no other MMA organization could accomplish was put female mixed martial arts on a national platform, and when it came to the competitions, they did this in top fashion. In fact, in a recent FightTicker poll, voters concluded that EliteXC should promote Gina Carano more than any other fighter with the Kimbo Slice era closing. This was the right choice.
Over the course of EliteXC’s three televised fight cards on CBS, the company consistently highlighted quality women’s matches. Gina Carano vs. Kaitlin Young kicked off the focus on women. Sure there were hiccups in Carano not making weight and their fight being stopped prematurely. However, the match itself was arguably the best match on the card and attracted 5.5 million viewers, making it the sixth most watched MMA match in U.S. history.
http://www.fightticker.com/story_1021081546_the_pro_elite_debacle_a_loss_for_womens_mma

Female MMA: Gina Carano versus Kelly Kobold

You know this Gina Carano / Kelly Kobold fight is getting a lot of press.
Good for both of them!

FEMALE FIGHTERS LOOK TO MAKE THE MOST OF PRIME-TIME MMA SHOWCASE
Posted By NEIL DAVIDSON, THE CANADIAN PRESS

Kelly Kobold remembers the first time she had to tell someone she was a pro fighter. She was in the locker-room after a workout and a woman, noticing the bruises on her body, came over and gave her a business card.
It was for a battered women's advocacy agency. "Honey, he's not worth it," the woman told her.
On Saturday, Kobold and opponent Gina (Conviction) Carano get to show off women's mixed martial arts in prime time when they meet in a 140- pound bout on CBS' EliteXC Saturday Night Fights (CBS, 9 p. m. ET).
The main event at the BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise, Fla., features heavyweights Kimbo Slice and veteran Ken Shamrock. Elsewhere on the card, Jake Shields defends his EliteXC welterweight title against England's Paul Daley, former UFC heavyweight titleholder Andrei Arlovski takes on former IFL title-holder Roy Nelson and middleweight Murilo (Ninja) Rua faces Benji Radach.
http://www.wellandtribune.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1231294